Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Megatrends Malaysia #1: "Crossroads"
- ‘Flag-burning sultan’ says Sulu army fake
- Anwar Ibrahim has a Hand in the Lahad Datu Invasion
- Investigate Malaysia's debts now
- A quick reaction to Malaysia’s RGDP growth for the fourth quarter: it is ironic and there is ...
- Aliens in the land – Indian migrant workers in Malaysia (part 1)
| Megatrends Malaysia #1: "Crossroads" Posted: 22 Feb 2013 10:46 AM PST in our society lies italy's mussolini and germany's hitler and japan's tojo .. all these laced with the one-dimensionality of malaysiana and that sloganism of "truly asia" ... the show goes on ... who will win will be determined by the complexity of the game of deceit, the closer we are to the finishing line the more complex the nature of deceit to even be displayed and rationalized ... we will arrive at Fahrenheit 451 (that Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel of book burning and the end of reason) in which everything will be heating up, in flames, and explode ... because our politics is a politics of plunder, pornography, and parasites behind a facade of rhetoric of morality and multiculturalism .. our politics is a politics of revenge, rape, and ravages run by despots that have designed dynasties amongst themselves in order to fed their desire to dominate, dictate, and dumb down the people ruled ... we could have been a greater nation had our years in-between elections we utilize to work on improving education and the soul of the nation as bi-partisans, in an evolving and meaningful way we teach about democracy, equality, equity, and personal and political integrity even if we still engage in a system of economy that prides itself in the triumph of the free-enterprise ideology ... - will we be doomed? - how difficult will it be for power to be transferred, should the time comes for the conclusion leading to a different political reality? - or will there be an emergency rule and the installation of a "caretaker government" of military men who will later shed their uniforms and the generals in their labyrinth once again put on their civilian clothes and hand over heaven's mandate on a golden plate? READ MORE HERE: http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/2013/02/megatrends-malaysia-1-crossroads.html
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| ‘Flag-burning sultan’ says Sulu army fake Posted: 21 Feb 2013 11:55 AM PST LAHAD DATU: A claimant to the North Borneo Sulu Sultanate is opposing the claim of the Sulu armed group that Sabah is their ancestral homeland. "My family is the rightful owner to the throne," said the 45-year-old Lahad Datu businessman Abdul Rajak Aliuddin who has proclaimed himself as the Sixth Sultan of North Borneo. The controversial Rajak, who was once detained and charged for burning the Sabah flag and raising the North Borneo Sultanate flag with the red lion symbol, said based on history the Sulu armed group led by Raja Muda Azzimudie Kiram has no rights to Sabah or North Borneo. Azzimudie is the brother of the Manila-acknowledged Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram, who is now undergoing dialysis treatment in the Philippines. Jamalul is based in the republic. Read more at: http://wikisabah.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/flag-burning-sultan-says-sulu-army-fake.html
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| Anwar Ibrahim has a Hand in the Lahad Datu Invasion Posted: 20 Feb 2013 01:01 PM PST Apparently the pro-Jewish leader and China doll expert had gone to Philippines a week before the armed intruders stormed Kampung Tandau, Lahad Datu, east of Sabah on Feb 9. The sources said that Anwar was said to have held secret talks at an undisclosed place with the head of the terrorists on the plot to invade Lahad Datu. Calling themselves the Royal Sulu Sultanate Army, the 100 over armed terrorists are reportedly headed by Raja Muda Azzimudie Kiram, a descendent of the Sultan of Sulu. It has been almost two weeks since they landed in Kampung Tandau and the stand off does not seem to see any signs of the terrorists backing off. What is interesting here is that the armed invasion was under a foreign flag. It is somewhat unusual for the insurgents to use a Philippine flag. Coincidentally when Anwar was walking the corridors of power in Putrajaya, he enjoys close rapport with Southern Philippines. And he has played a vital part in negotiations with insurgent groups there. The timing of the invasion, with the general election around the corner, is too close for comfort and arouses great suspicion on who is all behind it. Read more at: http://stopthelies.my/?p=2507
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| Investigate Malaysia's debts now Posted: 20 Feb 2013 12:42 PM PST The real devil lies in the details, namely: (i) the trend in the debt level. How has it changed in the recent past? Is there momentum in a certain direction? The federal government's debt had doubled in just four years from 2007 and 2012. Will it stop growing, or will the trend and absolute totals continue their upward rise? In the last decade, our finance ministers have repeatedly pledged to reduce the budget deficits. This has not happened. Instead, deficits have ballooned and the federal government's debt has mounted. (ii) the causes of debt. For what are the borrowings and for whom? Are these borrowings for worthwhile investments that benefit the public? Are these liabilities being used to cover government operating costs or to prop up failing crony companies or the stock market? Is the use of costly loans for projects with low or no rates of return justified? Almost a trillion ringgit was recently whisked out of the country in the form of illegal outflows. This is capital flight. It is conclusive evidence that our economy is 'leaking out' wealth. Capital flight explains what the crony private sector and other rent-seekers are doing with their ill-gotten gains: they are squirreling these away in offshore accounts in Swiss banks and tax havens such as the Cayman Islands. It is no wonder that private-sector investment in Malaysia is dismal. To make up for foregone domestic investment and job creation, environmental standards and taxes are lowered to lure foreign investors such as Lynas. (iii) the types of debt, both known and "hidden". How much of the debt is borrowed from the savings of citizens (internal debt)? How much is borrowed from foreign lenders (external debt)? How much of these debts is government debt, and how much is private?
A big chunk of Malaysia's debt, RM467.4 billion as of September 2012, is internal debt (Bank Negara Malaysia, Quarterly Bulletin, Third Quarter 2012). This is the portion of debt that is popularly spoken about — the debt-to-GDP percentage of 53% involves almost entirely this debt. This is money borrowed domestically from the savings of citizens. It is money belonging to individuals taken from the Employee Provident Fund (EPF), Tabung Haji, pension funds and other social security organisations and institutions (see 'Debt growing but manageable, says MOF', The Malaysian Insider, 28 September 2012). At what rates of return are Malaysians being compensated for this borrowing? Will they recover their savings at all? Will they be fraudulently 'compensated' with funds coming from the liquidation of oil and forest assets; in other words, from the public's own pockets? Or will a Ponzi scheme be devised to borrow more to honour commitments that come due? Wholly separate from internal public debt is private external debt — money borrowed from foreign lenders. This is a portion of debt that is hardly spoken about. The government's external debt is RM17.3 billion as of last September, according to Bank Negara. But this is the tip of the iceberg. We should also be very interested in the private sector's external debt. Because when private companies borrow from foreign lenders, the government is obliged to pay off these debts if the companies fail to do so. Simply put, citizens might have to pick up the tab. That is what happened in the debt crises in the West. That is why this category of external debt is called 'publicly guaranteed debts'. Beyond these, there is the 'non-guaranteed' debt obligation of the private sector. These affect the overall creditworthiness of the nation and also cannot be ignored. Bank Negara says Malaysia's total external debt was RM257.8 billion at the end of September 2012. How much of this is publicly guaranteed debt held by private corporations?
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| A quick reaction to Malaysia’s RGDP growth for the fourth quarter: it is ironic and there is ... Posted: 19 Feb 2013 09:48 PM PST So, the Malaysian economy grew by 6.4% from a year ago in the final quarter of 2012. [Malaysia's economy grew 6.4% in Q4, 2012, fastest in 9 quarters] When I first saw the headline figure, I was pleasantly surprised. Upon closer inspection however, the whole growth figures appeared weird. After I figured out why it was weird, I became uncomfortable with the high growth rate. Domestic demand growth slowed significantly (it slowed by 3.9 percentage points in fact from the last quarter). That was the first sign that something was not right. The private demand growth figure is particularly worrying. I had expected its growth to moderate slightly but it slowed by 2.4 percentage points. That is a lot. Here comes the ultimate irony: trade saved Malaysia. Despite the bad trade numbers we saw throughout the quarter, the one that pushed growth way above market consensus was net exports. This is where the weirdness comes in: both exports and imports contracted. How was that possible? Read more at: http://maddruid.com/?p=11287
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| Aliens in the land – Indian migrant workers in Malaysia (part 1) Posted: 19 Feb 2013 03:07 PM PST These workers migrate to Malaysia because they and their governments believe that temporary labour migration is a pathway to development. Predictably, most have also become trapped in circulating contract labour regimes. The debate on the developmental impacts of migration meanwhile continues to exclude discussion on the risks involved and the longer-term consequences of temporary migration. There is no conversation either on integration of earlier cohorts of migrant workers in society, let alone recent migrant workers who are increasingly referred to as aliens. The outlook is particularly gloomy for Malaysia's marginalised South Indian plantation workers who became "orphans of empire" when hardliners in the ruling United Malays National Organisation legislated to deny them citizenship rights. Commodities of empire and migrant labour, 1880s – 1970s Britain's 'forward movement' in Malaya after the 1870s resulted in the country's greater integration into the international economy and facilitated the production of mineral and agricultural commodities. Concurrently, labour migration became a fundamental component of Malaya's economic growth model and related social structures. Malaya's main's commodity exports were tin, coffee and sugar. Chinese entrepreneurs monopolised tin production, recruiting workers from China for their mines. European planters were chiefly involved in coffee and sugar cultivation and they relied on indentured labour from India for their enterprises. In the early 20th century, the planters switched to rubber and it subsequently became the main agricultural commodity. However, they lacked the capital to establish large properties and British trading (agency) houses in Singapore consequently played a vital role in bringing together planters and overseas financial interests (mainly in Britain), to convert the estates into joint-stock companies through flotation on the stock market in London. The 1909-10 rubber boom led to further changes and the proprietary estates largely disappeared, with their former owners often taking up shares in the new corporate entities as part of the sale price. These events foreshadowed major changes in the industry since rubber production necessitated the development of a distinctive agricultural 'complex' with inter-connected operations and a particular cultural milieu. Moreover, the development of the rubber industry reinforced the connections between Indian labour mobility and capital and both the Indian and Malayan colonial administrations strategically planned and organised Indian labour migration to Malaya. The plantation production system effectively established the Indian workers' subsequent employment circumstances and contributed to their marginalisation in Malaysia. The plantation system has since continued into the 21st century and has been adapted for oil palm production. Analogous to colonial frameworks, the Malaysian government and labour-sending states presently organise inter-state labour mobility. Additionally, since the 1980s Indonesian and Bangladeshi migrant workers have mostly replaced the former Indian workforce on plantations. These new migrant workers face a similar marginalisation progression. This paper compares past and present plantation labour regimes in Malaysia and frames the subject in the broader context of the plantation complex to suggest the larger, wider significance of the plantation management system and its institutional frameworks. Indian workers and rubber The rubber production system that was developed in Malaya was centred on cultivation of a single crop– rubber; an imported workforce mainly from India; and capital for the enterprise came from Britain, the United States and Europe. By 1910, rubber plantations covered approximately 225 000 hectares, rising to 891 000 hectares in 1921. This accounted for 53 per cent of the total land under rubber in South and Southeast Asia; and Malayan rubber exports also rose from 6500 to 204 000 tonnes between 1910 and 1919. As stated previously, rubber cultivation necessitated recruitment of a large, cheap and "disciplined" workforce that had be settled and organised to work under pioneering conditions in the country. British India with its teeming poverty-stricken millions and caste-ridden society was the preferred provider for this labour. The state and planters (as employers) essentially regarded the Indian labourer headed for Malaya as another tradable commodity in the production cycle. All the essential arrangements for his sojourn abroad – recruitment, transport and employment – were made by four parties: the sub-imperial Indian Government (or India Office); the Colonial Office in London; the Malayan (Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States) Government; and the employers. Since most Indian emigrants lacked the funds for spontaneous mass migration, Indian labour recruitment was managed by the India Office and sponsored by the Malayan administration. Governance arrangements for the plantation labour regime rested on two pillars – the mobilisation of a largely migrant labour force that facilitated the use of economic and extra-economic measures to maintain low wage bills; and an ethnic (and gender) differentiation of the labour force that enabled the manipulation of both workers and wages.
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